Evil Stepmother
by vegi burger
Summary: she was standing in front of a blue door to a red house, reminding herself what she was doing there. Lorelai goes for a long awaited visit.
1. Chapter 1

During that dinner, weeks ago, she thought her parents were just being their ridiculously paranoid selves, filling both hers and Luke's heads with disturbing, unnecessary thoughts, and figured it was better to just forget about the whole thing. But as time passed, thoughts about Luke lead to thoughts about April, and thoughts about April lead to thoughts about this. Once the idea sunk in, she knew she had to do something. Not that she honestly thought Anna was a con artist, or greedy, or worse -- an insurance salesperson, but she knew she simply had to meet that woman, just to know what she was really up against.

So after pestering Luke for some details, and then making him feel guilty for asking what's with all the questions, explaining that she was just doing her job as the loving fiancée and caring about what was going on in her man's life, she was standing in front of a blue door to a red house, reminding herself what she was doing there.

She shouldn't be doing this, a voice in the back of her head interjects. She should have told Luke. She should have called first. But no. She knows what she's doing here. This is something she has to do, and it is something she has to do alone, without him. However this is gonna turn out -- she wouldn't want him to bear the consequences. She took a deep breath out of the chilly, middle of March air, and knocked on the door.

"Come in!" a female voice came from deep inside the house. "I'll be with you in a minute!"

'There's no going back now,' she sighed heavily and walked through the door. Her eyes skimmed her surroundings, looking for the owner of that voice, to no avail. Instead, her eyes were overwhelmed by the colorful clatter that seemed to govern the place. She took a few steps deeper inside (the house? The store? The warehouse? Who could tell) and allowed herself to wonder around, checking the contents of all the shelves, boxes, and random displays that were absolutely everywhere, trying her best not to knock anything over or to fall down herself. Her hand traced the pattern of a brightly colored oriental pillow when her attention was diverted by babushka looking… somethings. Candles? Figurines? They were too tiny to have any more babushkas in them… or were they? She picked one up and tried to rattle it. Nothing. She put the object back down, and moved to a pile of soft, light colored towels; she fingered them while she kept looking around. Her eyes caught a familiar object -- a dragonfly table lamp, completely identical to the one they had at the inn. Her heart skipped a beat. This had to mean something. This was a sign.

"Can I help you?"

Was it a good sign? A bad sign? What did it mean? She wasn't sure. But she was certain that it was one.

"Do you like my lamp?"

Startled, she realized someone was talking to her. "What?"

"It is a thing of beauty, isn't it?" That someone said in what could only be described as a loving tone. "Would you like to buy it?"

"What? Oh, uh… no…" She almost dropped the lamp trying to put it back where it was, nervous and shaking "I, no… I actually already have a lamp just like that… so, no, I'll just put it back here, easy… there." She sighed with relief, the lamp finally standing stably on the crowded table.

She finally looked up, meeting the gaze of a blue eyed pleasant woman, a little older than her, who was looking at her at what seemed like the combination of amusement, confusion and politeness.

"Would you like me to point you to anything with a similar style?"

"You're Anna?"

"Yes."

"Anna Nardini?"

"That's right."

"April Nardini's mom?"

"That's me…" she admitted, half proudly, half apologetically. "Are you her teacher?"

"No, I'm..."

"Are you from her school?"

"Actually, I came here to…"

"Did she win some award? She's always getting into science contests without telling me, it's driving me crazy…"

"I'm not from her school or from any committee, I'm just…"

"Here about April?"

"Yes."

"Are you a strangler?"

"No! What is it with…"

"So, who are you?"

Taking a deep breath she straightened up and stuck out her hand "I'm Lorelai Gilmore."

Anna gave her hand a small shake, a confused, apologetic smile on her face. "Lorelai Gilmore…?"

"I'm Luke's fiancée."

"Luke's fian… Ow."

"Yeah."

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

An awkward silence stood in the air, as the two women appraised each other, finally broken by Anna's attempt of:

"Would you like some tea?"

"I don't really drink tea. Got any coffee?"

"Oh, I don't keep coffee in the house."

"Well, that's just great…" Lorelai mumbled.

"Excuse me?"

"Just some water would be great, thanks."

"That, I can do."

Anna disappeared into a small kitchen, and Lorelai set at the first vacant seat she could find. And she thought HER place was messy… Listening to the bangs of dishes and the gush of water (undoubtedly telling her that Anna was the kind of person who only cleans when they absolutely have to), she finally got to evaluate her surroundings, and her companion. Well, she really was very pretty, she'll give her that. Feminine, bright blue eyes, welcoming smile, dark hair, fair skin… she had a disturbing feeling that back when Liz told her she was Luke's 'type'-- she was referring to her. If the house was any kind of indication to what kind of person Anna was, she could see why she and Luke hadn't made it. In an amazing contrast, all the clashing bright colors, all the mess, somehow combined to a serene atmosphere, non of which read 'Luke' to her. He couldn't possibly stand that kind of thing for very long… then again, that pestering, meddling voice in the back of her mind interjected once more, she could see a lot of it reflected in herself. A different version, a different result, certainly, but still… Ask her why they didn't work. Add that to the list.

"Here you go!" came a voice from above her head, as Anna cleared a small space on the coffee table in front of her and put down two beautiful, flower glazed glasses of water. Ones, Lorelai couldn't help but think, that would fit in great at the inn. When they finish, she should remember to ask her if she's got any like those for sale.

Anna took a big cardboard box off the neighboring couch, dropped it to the floor with a soft thud, and set in its place, an anxious, unsure smile on her face.

"So you're Lorelai Gilmore, Luke's fiancée."

"Among other things."

"It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you, too." Lorelai returned, unsure whether they should shake hands again or not. She settled for reaching for her glass instead.

"I was wondering when I would finally get to meet you" Anna admitted, her calm voice doing nothing to relax Lorelai's nerves, her gulp of water cold and hard to swallow.

"Yeah, I was wondering about that myself…" she started, only to be interrupted by-

"I mean, after what happened, April was sure that…" But Lorelai, finally getting the nerve, wouldn't let her finish. She had to put it out there, she had to let it out, and she had to do it now, before she lost her momentum:

"The reason I came here is this -- Luke is trying to get close to April, and I admire him for that, because really, most men would just say 'it's too late' and shrug it off, but he is really trying and it's really important to him, and so far, it seems to work, which brings me to this conclusion -- you and her are going to be a part of our life now, which means I'm going to have to learn to like you, or at least get along with you, and I plan on doing just that. But before all of that happens, there are some things I need to get out in the open, so we can handle them and move on and be one big bizarre happy family."

"O-Kay…" Anna breathed out slowly, thoughtfully, as if she knew this was coming and had been waiting for it for a long time. "I… I can't promise I can give you all the answers… but… I think you're right. I think… what is it exactly you want to 'get out in the open'?"

Her 'business face' was still on, but inside her head, thoughts were flying everywhere. For months, she had all these questions running around her head, and now, she finally had the opportunity to voice them, and maybe even get some answers, but something was still holding her back.

"I just… I want to make it clear -- this is all me. Luke's got nothing to do with it."

"How can Luke have _nothing_ to do with it?"

"Well, obviously, he's got EVERYTHING to do with it…" Her eyes widened nervously. "What I mean to say is — this is my idea. My questions. My… thing. Luke doesn't even know I'm here."

"He doesn't!" Surprisingly, Anna sounded worried

"He will… I will tell him… I just want this to be between us…. Without involving Luke or April. If you end up hating me, I don't want you to take it out on Luke, ok?"

"I promise, whatever I'll have to take out, I'll take out only on you."

"Good. That's good. That's… important."

"I agree."

"Yes. Well…" this went out a lot more smoothly in her head. "Uh…"

"You wanted to ask me something."

"I wanted to ask a lot of things." Lorelai felt her 'serious, slightly intimidating, business woman' façade slipping away, and she didn't like it. She had to get, no -- take, a grip. And she did.

"In April's…experiment, she took hair samples from three men, three… candidates. She didn't know who her father was. Did you?"

"Did I..?"

"Did you know?"

"You're starting with the hard ones, huh?"

"Oh, trust me, this isn't a hard one." Lorelai let out a bitter laugh. "This one is just to get us started." Seeing Anna still hesitating, she added "Listen, I'm not here to judge you. I've been there. I know what it's like to raise a child on your own, and I know what it's like to treat a man really shitty, because you have your reasons, or at least," she gestured towards Anna, "believe you have your reasons. So, I know. This is so we can get past that."

"What did you do?"

"I dumped a guy. Three days before we were supposed to get married."

"Wow."

"On his answering machine."

"That is shitty." Anna nodded with agreement.

"So did you know?"

TBC


End file.
